The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth

by Eric Ries

I recommend: The startup is allowed to spend its growth-board money on whatever it wants, without micromanagement. But it must bear the full costs of anything it uses: salaries, equipment, facilities. This is not a matter of allocating partial overhead costs from the parent organization, either. Recall from Chapter 6 that the only people who should be working on a startup are full-time dedicated employees or part-time volunteers (who are not paid to do so). There should be no part-time costs—unless the startup decides to hire part-time or contract labor from the outside. I’ve seen internal startups go to outside vendors, like IT, when internal gatekeepers are intransigent. As long as they are spending their own money, this is fine.